The Most Famous

WRITERS from Réunion

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This page contains a list of the greatest Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 3 of which were born in Réunion. This makes Réunion the birth place of the 93rd most number of Writers behind Ghana, and Kyrgyzstan.

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Writers of all time. This list of famous Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Michel Houellebecq

1. Michel Houellebecq (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 68.27, Michel Houellebecq is the most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 65 different languages on wikipedia.

Michel Houellebecq (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl wɛlbɛk]; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Houellebecq published his first novel, Whatever, in 1994. His next novel, Atomised, published in 1998, brought him international fame as well as controversy. Platform followed in 2001. He has published several books of poetry, including The Art of Struggle in 1996. An offhand remark about Islam during a publicity tour for his 2001 novel Platform led to Houellebecq being taken to court for inciting racial hatred (he was eventually cleared of all charges). He subsequently moved to Ireland for several years, before moving back to France, where he currently resides. He was described in 2015 as "France’s biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer." In a 2017 DW article, he is dubbed the "undisputed star, and enfant terrible, of modern French literature". In 2010, he published The Map and the Territory, which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt. In 2015, his next novel, Submission, sparked another controversy for its depiction of Islam. He was also recently accused of plagiarism concerning Submission. Annihilation was published in 2022.

Photo of Leconte de Lisle

2. Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894)

With an HPI of 62.25, Leconte de Lisle is the 2nd most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (French: [ʃaʁl maʁi ʁəne ləkɔ̃t də lil]; 22 October 1818 – 17 July 1894) was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle.

Photo of Évariste de Parny

3. Évariste de Parny (1753 - 1814)

With an HPI of 51.03, Évariste de Parny is the 3rd most famous Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny (6 February 1753 – 5 December 1814) was a French Rococo poet.

People

Pantheon has 3 people classified as writers born between 1753 and 1956. Of these 3, 1 (33.33%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living writers include Michel Houellebecq. The most famous deceased writers include Leconte de Lisle, and Évariste de Parny.

Living Writers

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Deceased Writers

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